In the world of continuous changes and new trends it is important to have in your team, department or organization, people who think different and who approach to problem in different manner. Often, it’s difficult to recognize innovative persons. They are shy and mostly they hide their ideas in fear not to be copied. Nevertheless, with time some of their features will come along: Continue reading “Human side of innovation – innovators inside organizations”

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I have two sons and they are so different, they have same interests, but comparing their social skills or the way they communicate, they are totally different. Since they were 3 years old and started with Kindergarten, we knew for sure that one is introvert and other is extrovert. Continue reading “Making introverts successful innovators”

Everyone has the potential to be creative. We all create everyday, whether we’re at home, work, in the garden or at school. these ideas help us in our daily lives and we often take them for granted because we think they’re small or insignificant. But sometimes we could come up with an idea that is so useful for the market that it can be called an innovation. The problem is that many people are uncomfortable getting their idea out, or too timid to step out of their comfort zones. Continue reading “Great Idea Can Come From Anywhere!”

Have you heard a friend or colleague making fun of his/her superiors because they are doing something “stupid”? On the question “why don’t you suggest a solution?” you get an answer “they wouldn’t listen” or “they don’t care for my thoughts” or “let them do what they want!”Continue reading “Nurturing Innovation”

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The football club that I’m supporting (NK Osijek of course) or maybe it will more honest to say: the club which is a big part of my life has just finished the selection for next year’s kit. The interesting thing, … Continue reading Idea contest for a sport club

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To set up an innovation contest, we’ll first need a topic for sure. Clearly defined, “trendy” topic must push innovators to engage in contest. Sales, marketing, management or customer should trigger new topic from the business field that needs new ideas from our “innovation team”. This need seeker should provide quality description and customer situation of the topic, but avoid technical details as this could lead innovators into wrong path and there is no need for details in this phase – concepts are better. Continue reading ““The Method” – Contest”

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This is second post to the “7innovation method” series. First “awakening” part of the process is to launch initial contest which will “feel the pulse” of the organization and discover innovative persons. This contest could be a wide futuristic strategic … Continue reading “The Method” – Awakening and Selection

I often hear questions like “How can I start my creativity?” or “How to earn money with my ideas?”. The best answer is always an advice to check few open innovation portals. It is always very useful to see examples and to be encouraged by creative products that are trying to conquer the market. First stop which everyone loves to see is surely Threadless.com, where you can submit T-shirt design and win cash, prizes & fame. One more site with similar content is cafepress. It looks so good, like the most of world’s designers are trying to create T-shirts. Starting site … Continue reading Starting points for creativity and innovation

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It’s always a challenge to bring the innovative culture of any organization to higher level. After promotion of innovation program and removing the barriers, one of tasks connected with that challenge is to be successful in Idea Generation. The focus can be on the quantity of ideas, but it is also always expected, that this ideas have a certain quality to be able to get realized at the end. Continue reading “Idea Generation Methods”

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My paper “Establishing Innovation Culture”, about installing Innovative Climate in big organization is available via this link on issuu. I presented it on the Conference for Entrepreneurship & Innovation in Maribor, 2 years ago, and got a great feedback. Hope that you’ll like it! Please comment! Continue reading Establishing Innovation Culture

How can any software developer become an Innovator? Is it possible that innovations exist in any software company?

Software development in small and middle size companies can be encouraged in the same manner as in big companies. The effort and the time spent surely must be scaled, but the general principle which should bring the innovation culture into the teams can be copied.

It’s easy to start innovation campaign, but to do it in a right way you need to be stick to some principles. So, to get really good, focused ideas much work has to be done before the start. If it’s possible it is best to have fixed topic, maybe also the customer behind it! Then your participants will have the biggest chance for innovation. It’s not important to buy newest piece of software to support the campaign, it can be done in a simplest way, which is in most cases – the best way. Sharepoint or even the Excel sheets … Continue reading The power of innovation campaigns

German innovation agency Hyve has started open innovation campaign for Japan: Your Idea for Japan Suggestion can be made according to following questions: How can we express solidary towards Japan? How can we collect money in an unconventional and encouraging manner? How can we help the homeless people having lost everything they possessed? How can we make their life in the emergency shelters more comfortable? How can we prevent an extensive radioactive contamination of food, water, ground and air? How can we successfully handle catastrophes like this one (especially in the future)? 2 euros are donated to every idea submission… … Continue reading your idea for japan

Siemens has started Open Innovation Initiative for Smart Grid. End of contest is 31st of May. here is how it’s described: “The world around us is changing. To lower CO2 emissions, we need to rely on renewable energy sources. For that, the current energy network needs to become more flexible and intelligent. A Smart Grid!” Continue reading Siemens Smart Grid Innovation Contest

First Open Innovation Initiative has started in Croatia. It’s started by political party HSLS (Croatian Social Liberal Party) and it’s focused for suggestions for Croatia’s Capital Zagreb. It is called: Suggest Zagreb! Suggestions can be sent by registrated users from following categories: Economy, Culture, Education, Science, Sport, Ecology, Tourism… Users can vote for suggestions and also special Committee is formed to judge about best ideas, which will be suggested to Zagreb’s City Parliament by HSLS. Not bad for first time, here is the link. Continue reading first attempt of open innovation in croatia